Sashingo: Exploring Japanese Language Through Photography – A Review

Sashingo: Learn Japanese With Photography has a straightforward concept, as you might guess from its title. You’re placed in a tiny version of Shibuya, Tokyo, equipped with just a small Polaroid camera, ready to explore at your leisure. As you snap photos, the camera zooms in on specific objects and teaches you the Japanese words along with their Hiragana or Katakana characters. Although there aren’t any fixed objectives, the game encourages you to discover various words scattered throughout the map and compile these snapshots in your album.

The open-ended design of Sashingo offers a creative and entertaining way to introduce players to basic Japanese vocabulary. You have the option to take a short quiz where the game challenges you to find an object corresponding to a given word. This blend of adventure and language learning is quite enjoyable, and the game excels in this educational pursuit. The words are pronounced clearly, and there’s a comprehensive manual that provides more situational phrases to help you practice basic Japanese conversation. Personally, it feels more engaging than using Duolingo. While Duolingo serves as a decent learning resource, it doesn’t exactly pack in the fun. Sashingo, on the other hand, makes acquiring and practicing new words more accessible and less intimidating. You’re not pressured by scores, and you have the freedom to choose which words you want to focus on.

Despite my affinity for Japan and my numerous visits, the language remains a hurdle for me. I’ve tried using Duolingo, and my partner has attended several Japanese classes, but the trickiest part of learning a language is the necessity of daily use and speaking it regularly to truly improve. Sashingo finds itself in a bit of a tricky spot here; it doesn’t serve as the most comprehensive starting point for learning Japanese. Even though it employs sound educational tactics for teaching vocabulary, it doesn’t provide much in terms of foundational language skills or interactive scenarios that convey real-world usage. The game’s manual does delve a bit deeper into these contexts, but it’s mostly about reading and listening to voice clips, which doesn’t really reinforce learning during gameplay.

Interestingly, my partner enjoyed watching me play and was enthusiastic about helping me learn new words. With her foundational knowledge from Japanese courses, she could easily identify common objects like bottles and bicycles, but also appreciated picking up less typical terms like ‘construction site’ and ‘cardboard box.’ In this regard, Sashingo excels as a supplementary tool to broaden vocabulary and as an engaging way to practice interactively. However, the gaming aspect feels somewhat underdeveloped. Although you can experiment with different filters unlocked by passing tests, the game doesn’t offer much scope for personalizing your photographic style. The zoom and focus features are impressive, yet there’s no option to tilt the camera or capture selfies, which might disappoint fans of photography-based games.

Ultimately, Sashingo: Learn Japanese With Photography could serve as a valuable supplement if you’re already on the path to learning Japanese. Its charming art style and the tiny rendition of Shibuya are delightful to explore, providing an opportunity to absorb numerous Japanese words. Yet, as a standalone resource for mastering the language and as a photography game, it misses the mark slightly. That being said, it’s a delightful distraction if you’re on a flight to Japan, offering you a few words and phrases to try out once you land.